Hilda in Sunglasses by Harold Olsen

Doesn’t everyone who wants to be incognito wear dark sunglasses?  All those movie stars that go around in floppy hats and sunglasses trying not to be seen are my idols.  No?  Okay, maybe not.  But haven’t you heard that the Surgeon General has advised everyone to wear sunscreen and sunglasses to minimize the amount of sun damage to their skin and eyes?  You haven’t? Well, let me educate you on that.

It’s not exactly the Surgeon General’s warning that I follow by encapsulating myself in dark glass, but it is really for the same reason as they give: sun can damage me.  Once I am ready to rock and roll and enter your home, I am good enough to drink.  But if you store me on the counter for a couple weeks until your party or gathering, well, if I didn’t have the dark shroud around me, I’d start to change my flavor.

Sun damage to wine comes in the same form as to the skin: UV damage.  The rays will change my chemical structure, breaking me down so I start to taste a little funny.  It’s kind of like a window: if you have a window with no shade, the room gets warmer from the sun.  If you pull down a shade or curtain, the solar gain is diminished in the room.  If I was in a clear bottle, the light would shine on through and I’d have nothing to protect against that heat.  My putting myself in dark glass, as red wine, I pull the shades so to speak and keep the sun glare and heat to a minimum.

Why do you wear YOUR dark sunglasses???  Tell us your story.